The Martial Unity

The bomb was made out of a small amount of a Master-level esoteric with a known tendency to explode if it ever experienced inertia for more than a certain amount of time. The esoteric had been attached to his heart, such that if his heart stopped beating, the esoteric mass would stop, experiencing inertia for enough time, causing it to explode.

As a result, it would yield an explosion that would vaporize everything within a radius of ten kilometers from the epicenter.

'That's insane,' Rui heaved a sigh. 'I can't survive that kind of firepower, especially if I'm up close.'

He knew that Masters were powerful, but the fact that such an enormously powerful explosion could be considered only quasi-Master-level was hard to parse. 'I'm glad that Martial Masters have perfect control over their raw power,' Rui heaved a sigh. 'Otherwise, I might have died in the battle between Master Haishi and Master Zeamer.'

Regardless, this greatly restricted Rui's options for a direct assassin. He couldn't just walk up to Chairman Deacon and lop the man's head off, even if the guards weren't there. 'Hm, then maybe I will have to settle for indirect assassinations,' Rui considered the option.

Unfortunately, it appeared that Chairman Deacon was just as paranoid about getting poisoned as he was about getting murdered up close. The man had a dedicated anti-poisoning team that would not only test food but also taste a portion of every single thing that Chairman Deacon was to put in his mouth.

That included all manners of food, beverages, and even water. Furthermore, Chairman Deacon would personally oversee the poison testing part himself, for he was too paranoid to let it happen outside of his personal supervision.

The poison testing team included a poison-oriented Martial Senior with a hundred and fifty years of experience with poison.

'In other words, I can forget about poisoning his food,' Rui heaved a sigh. Although he had gained a foundational understanding of indirect assassinations from Master Reina, he didn't have any experience with them. All of his assassinations thus far had been direct assassinations that he himself had completed.

Trying to successfully pull off an indirect assassination against someone like Chairman Deacon and the highly competent security personnel and the extravagant measures he had taken was not worth it.

'Unless I find some specific solution that has a particularly high probability of succeeding, I should probably forget about trying to kill him indirectly,' Rui concluded. 'As for the explosive, I need to ensure that I'm well out of range by the time he dies. That would be much easier to do in an indirect assassination, but it is possible even with a direct assassination.'

One thing that he did note was the assassination history that Chairman Deacon had gone through.

'The man has been attempted an assassination on nearly fifty times in the past seven years,' Rui noted. 'Which means that this is nothing new to him.'

Furthermore, according to the report, there have been instances where he came close to death. However, in none of these instances did he take suicidal measures to try and take his assassins with him by triggering the bomb.

On top of that, the fact that the explosive had been surgically implanted into his body was a secret that was supposed to be known only to four people indicated that Chairman Deacon had worked very hard to keep it a secret.

'There are several things to be inferred about his intentions from this,' Rui's analytical mind kicked into action. 'First, the purpose of the bomb is not deterrence. A deterrence only works if people know about it. This bomb isn't a deterrence… it's a trump card.'

Chairman Deacon could have very easily deterred assassins from going anywhere near him had he spread the news about this particular survival measure. After all, what assassin would dare to assassinate him if it meant being vaporized by an explosion that would stretch a radius of ten kilometers?

Yet he had taken a lot of measures to keep it a secret. In fact, the only reason Rui had learned about it was because the Beggar's Sect was good at what it did. Once more, Rui thanked his old self for deciding to be prudent and purchasing intelligence on Chairman Deacon from them. Things could have gone very wrong if he didn't.

'The reason he even got the bomb was to kill me, considering the timing…' Rui ascertained. 'Does that mean he fears my ability to kill him?'

Not necessarily, it could also have meant that he didn't think he could kill Rui any other way.

'However, the fact that dozens of assassinations have been attempted on him in the past seven years and he hasn't killed himself even when they got close, indicates that even if I attempt a direct assassination, it is highly unlikely that he'll trigger the bomb to kill me by killing himself,' Rui noted. 'That gives me some relief. I probably don't have to worry about the bomb too much outside of ensuring I don't kill him by accident or make him desperate enough to kill himself.'

That meant that eliminating his bodyguards was something that he needed to do swiftly and decisively. He needed to reach Chairman Deacon before the man realized he was going to die. The bomb wasn't the only trump card that the man had prepared. In addition to the four Senior-level bodyguards, the man had two excellent secretaries that had glowing resumes and had graduated from the highest institutes of management.

In reality, however, both those secretaries were disguised Martial Seniors that had been retroactively trained within Deacon Industries to be secretaries.

Of course, the Beggar's Sect had discovered the truth and had highlighted in the report to Rui. Unfortunately, they were unable to acquire information regarding their true identities and more importantly, their grades or their Martial Art.

'That's a shame, but just knowing that his true secretaries are Martial Seniors is a boon that would have screwed my plans had I not known…'